The three artists featured here all have a strong emotional bond with their respective locations. They show how you can choose to focus on mood, atmosphere, environmental concerns or capturing nature’s majesty in its large vistas or fragile wildlife. Along the way they reveal some tips and insights for working with the National Trust.

Godfrey Sayers
Godfrey is a watercolour artist who grew up on the north Norfolk coast. He says he is ‘inspired by the interface between the land and sea. It just happens that the best bits are owned by the National Trust. This coast represents some of the last lowland wilderness in England.’ I was struck by the calmness in his work: the sweeping, often simple compositions, large expanses of water and sky, with details acting as points of interest. These are not ‘safe’ landscapes, however. They seem to hint at the potential wildness and danger of the sea. Godfrey is keen to see the landscape protected, realising people need to care for and appreciate places such as this. ‘If in some small way my work helps, then I am content,’ he says. I asked Godfrey about his working methods. ‘When I began, I sketch-painted outdoors much of the time, but I now work entirely in the studio; large full imperial washes would be very difficult to execute out on the marsh. However, I still spend a great deal of time out in the landscape, (I do use a digital camera for some things) but mostly it comes from this and many years of interaction with the place. I work in watercolour, I use around six colours and three brushes: a large mop brush, a No. 9 and a No. 2. I first wash the paper with a light primer of yellow ochre, then I work from the distance to the foreground using the sky colours throughout to ensure that the colour of the day is in everything.’ I love that phrase – it sums up Godfrey’s beautiful sense of light. His advice for working with the National Trust is ‘I am sure the property manager and wardens would be most willing to assist visiting artists with advice on where to get the best inspiration and, perhaps more importantly, where in an otherwise quite dangerous environment it is safe to go.’

Golden Morning 2, Morston, watercolour, (20.5x38cm)

John Dyer

Full of heightened life and colour, John’s work offers a striking contrast to the calm, subtle hues of Godfrey’s work. Born in Cornwall into an artistic family, John is painter-in-residence at the Eden Project and has been involved in a large number of community and environmental projects. It is this enthusiasm that led him to the National Trust. ‘The fun and energy that people display in the maze at Glendurgan Garden is the real attraction for me. I visit the garden regularly with my family and we all enjoy rushing around, finding our way into and back out of the maze. The garden is full of happy noises and shrieks, all set in the most magnificent sub-tropical valley garden setting.’

Amazing Mayhem in the Maze in May, Glendurgan Garden, acrylic on board, (84x101.5cm)

Fiona Clucas
Fiona was born in Liverpool, studied in Leicester and Gloucester and now lives in Cumbria. She is married to the Head Forester Warden of the Sizergh estate in the south lakes, and says that inspiration for her paintings comes ‘from the different lights and seasons’ while on her daily walks around the estate with her dogs. I started by asking about the media she uses. ‘The paintings are acrylic mixed media, often quite textured. I use acrylic opaque paste and mix that with acrylic pigment, often using a palette knife. I do a lot of mark-making and printing into the paint with different objects and tools, using anything I can find such as card or forks, and somebody gave me some packing sponge, so I’ve used that.’ Fiona‘s paintings are often strikingly composed, full of delicate details and a great sense of depth. I asked her about achieving this: ‘Often there is obviously more texture in the foreground; as the image recedes to create that feeling of depth, I blend thin washes of paint to get a much softer area behind. I use oil pastels to pick up texture on top of the acrylic; it actually works really well, once you’ve varnished it. Sometimes I just blend them in. ‘I really love colour. In the landscape shadows are often blue or purple – I really accentuate those. I‘m drawn to mauve and I love purples and ochres.’ She describes her work as ‘more about looking at detail, not views as such, but homing in on the birds or butterflies in their habitat.’ Although she does sketch outdoors, most paintings derive from photographs, which she takes a large number, and she will work from several. She also tries to have two or three images on the go at any one time to help avoid overworking. Fiona’s advice to other artists is simply ’Just ring up the estate office, I can’t imagine anyone’s going to be turned away if they want to be inspired by the landscape. It’s a good thing – just go and ask.’